(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that, unless otherwise specified, the genetic disease testing program carried out pursuant to this chapter be fully supported from fees collected for services provided by the program. (b) (1) The department shall charge a fee to all payers for any test or activity performed pursuant to this chapter. The amount of the fee shall be established by regulation and periodically adjusted by the director in order to meet the costs of this chapter. Notwithstanding any other law, any fee charged for prenatal screening and followup services provided to a person enrolled in the Medi-Cal program, health care service plan enrollee, or person covered by a health insurance policy shall be paid in full and deposited in the Genetic Disease Testing Fund or the Birth Defects Monitoring Program Fund consistent with this section. (2) The department shall expeditiously undertake all steps necessary to implement the fee collection process, including personnel, contracts, and data processing, to initiate the fee collection process at the earliest opportunity. (3) Effective for services provided on and after July 1, 2002, the department shall charge a fee to the hospital of birth or, for births not occurring in a hospital, to families of the newborn for newborn screening and followup services. The hospital of birth and families of newborns born outside the hospital shall make payment in full to the Genetic Disease Testing Fund. The department shall not charge or bill Medi-Cal beneficiaries for services provided pursuant to this chapter. (4) (A) The department shall charge a fee for prenatal screening to support the pregnancy blood sample storage, testing, and research activities of the Birth Defects Monitoring Program. (B) The prenatal screening fee for activities of the Birth Defects Monitoring Program shall be ten dollars ($10). (5) The department shall set guidelines for invoicing, charging, and collecting from approved researchers the amount necessary to cover all expenses associated with research application requests made pursuant to this section, data linkage, retrieval, data processing, data entry, reinventory, reporting, and shipping of blood samples or their components, and related data management. (6) The only funds from the Genetic Disease Testing Fund that may be used for the purpose of supporting the pregnancy blood sample storage, testing, and research activities of the Birth Defects Monitoring Program are those prenatal screening fees assessed and collected prior to the creation of the Birth Defects Monitoring Program Fund specifically to support those Birth Defects Monitoring Program activities. (7) (A) The Birth Defects Monitoring Program Fund is hereby created as a special fund in the State Treasury. Fee revenues that are collected pursuant to paragraph (4) shall be deposited into the fund and shall be available upon appropriation by the Legislature to support the pregnancy blood sample storage, testing, and research activities, including reporting, of the Birth Defects Monitoring Program. (B) Notwithstanding Section 16305.7 of the Government Code, interest earned on funds in the Birth Defects Monitoring Program Fund shall be deposited as revenue into the fund to support the Birth Defects Monitoring Program. (c) (1) The Legislature finds that timely implementation of changes in genetic screening programs and continuous maintenance of quality statewide services requires expeditious regulatory and administrative procedures to obtain the most cost-effective electronic data processing, hardware, software services, testing equipment, and testing and followup services. (2) The expenditure of funds from the Genetic Disease Testing Fund for these purposes is not subject to Section 12102 of, and Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 10290) of Part 2 of Division 2 of, the Public Contract Code or to Division 25.2 (commencing with Section 38070) of this code. The department shall provide the Department of Fina
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